TIRESIAS.

Since, to be brief, you shudder at the Thought
Of Want, attend, how Riches may be caught.
Suppose a Thrush, or any dainty Thing
Be fent to you, dispatch it on the Wing
To fome rich Dotard. What your Garden yields,
The choiceft Honours of your cultur'd Fields,
To him be facrific'd, and let him taste,
Before your Gods, the vegetable Feast.
Though he be perjur'd, and ignobly born,
Stain'd with fraternal Blood, the public Scorn,
A Runagate; yet if requir'd, abide

The Teft, and dance Attendance by his Side
With low Submiffion

ULYSSES.

What! obey the Call

Of fuch a Wretch, and give a Slave the Wall?
Not thus at Troy I prov'd my lofty Mind,
Contending ever with the nobler Kind.

TIRESIAS.

Then Poverty shall be your Fate..

ULYSSES.

If fo,

Let me with Soul undaunted undergo
This loathfom Evil, fince my valiant Heart
In greater Perils bore a manly Part.
But inftant tell me, Prophet, how to scrape
Returning Wealth, and pile the fplendid Heap.

TIRI

zo. Fortem boc animum.] Ulyffes cannot defcend to Meanneffes unworthy of his Rank, nor would it have been in Character He had a Fund of Art and Diffimulation, and pretended to hear the fage Advice Tirefias gave him, as if he approved of it, but takes Care, at parting, not to tell whether he was determined to follow it.DAC.SAN. 2.1. Protinus.] Tirefias laughed even before he fpoke :: but Ulyffes,

growing

TIRESIAS.

Dixi equidem, & dico. Captes aftutus ubique Teftamenta fenum: neu, fi vafer unus & alter Infidiatorem prærofo fugerit hamo, Aut frem deponas, aut artem illufus omittas. M ana minorve foro fi res certabitur olim; Vivet uter locuples fine natis, improbus, ultro - Qui meliorem audax vocet in jus, illius esto Defenfor: famâ civem causâque priorem Sperne, domi fi natus erit, fecundave conjux. Quinte, puta, aut Publi (gaudent prænomine molles Auricula) tibi me virtus tua fecit amicum : Jus anceps novi: caufas defendere poffum : Eripiet quivis oculos citiùs mihi, quàm te Contemtum cafsâ nuce pauperet: hæc mea cura eft, Ne quid tu perdas, neu fis jocus. Ire domum atque Pelliculam curare jube: fi cognitor ipfe : Perfta, atque obdura: feu rubra canicula findet Infantes ftatuas; feu pingui tentus omafo

25

30

35

40 Furius

growing impatient, and imagining that the Prophet ftill continued to teat him with too much Pleafantry, defires him to tell him, at once, protinus, whether there might not be fome other Manner of making his Fortune. Tirefias is firm to the Advice he had given, dixi equidem & dice, as if he were seriously convinced, that this was the best Method, by which the Monarch could repair his broken Fortune.

32. Quinte, puta, aut Publi.] A Slave was no fooner made free, than he qualified himfelf with a Surname, fuch as Marcus, Quintus, Publius, which carried a Sort of Dignity with it. The Romans faluted each other by their Surnames.

38. Fi cognitor. Fi, which is of all the Manufcripts, hath been changed into fi and is in different Editions. It is an Imparative Mood of the Verb fio, and is often ufed by Plautus.

39. Seu rubra canicula findet.] Horace here laughs at a Couple of Poets, one of whom had called Statues, infantine, or young, to fhew, they were newly made; an Expreffion affected, abfurd and ridiculous The other reprefented Jupiter fpit:ing Snow upon the Alpes; an Idea low, harsh and extravagant. The last of thefe

Bards

TIRESIAS.

I told, and tell you: you may fafely catch

The Wills of Dotards, if you wifely watch ;

And though one Hunks or two pèrceive the Cheat,,
Avoid the Hook, or nibble off the Bait,

Lay not afide your golden Hope of Prey,
Or drop your Art, though baffled in your Play..
Should either great, or lefs important Suit.
In Court become the Matter of Difpute,
Efpoufe the Man of profperous Affairs,
Pregnant with Wealth, if indigent in Heirs ;
Though he should hamper with a wicked Caufe
The jufter Party, and infult the Laws.
Defpife the Citizen of better Life,

If clog'd with Children, or a fruitful Wife.-
Accoft him thus (for he with Rapture hears
A title tingling in his tender Ears)

Quintus, or Publius, on my Faith depend,
Your own Deferts have render'd me your Friend
I know the mazy Doubles of the Laws,
Unty their Knots, and plead with vaft Applause..
Had you a Nut, the Villain might as well
Pluck out my Eyes, as rob you of the Shell.
This is the Bufinefs of my Life profest,
That you lofe nothing, or become a Jeft.
Bid him go home, of his fweet Self take Care;;
Conduct his Caufe, proceed, and perfevere,
Should the red Dog-ftar infant Statues split,
Or fat-paunch'd Furius in poetic Fit

Bom-

Bards was Furius Bibaculus, the Name of the other is unknown, Some of our Commentators understand infantes ftatuas, dumb, fi

lent Statues.

L 6

JUNIUS. SAN.

41. Furius

Furius hybernas canâ nive confpuet Alpes.

Nonne vides (aliquis cubito ftantem prope tangens
Inquiet) ut patiens, ut amicis aptus, ut acer?
Plures adnabunt thynni, & cetaria crefcent.
Si cui præterea validus malè filius in re
Præclarâ fublatus aletur; ne manifeftum
Calibis obfequium nudet te, leniter in fpem
Arrepe officiofus, ut & fcribare fecundus
Heres, & fi quis cafus puerum egerit Orco,
In vacuum venias. Perrarò hæc alea fallit.
Qui teftamentum tradet tibi cunque legendum,
Abnuere, & tabulas à te removere memento :
Sic tamen, ut limis rapias, quid prima fecundo
Cera velit verfu; folus multifne coheres,
Veloci percurre oculo. Plerumque recoctus
Scriba ex quinqueviro corvum deludet hiantem ;
Captatorque dabit rifus Nafica Corano.

ULYSSES.

Num furis? an prudens ludis me, obfcura canendo ? TIRE

41. Furius bybernas.] Jupiter bybernas canâ nive conspuet Alpes is the Line, which our Author has parodied. He pleasantly puts Furius himself in the place of Jupiter spitting forth Snow, and the Term confpuere feems better to agree with the fat Paunch of Furius, than with a God. In the Lines before, he compares him to the Dog-ftar, as if his Poetry was cold as that Conftellation in Winter. Servius tells us, in his Notes on Eraque diffiliunt vulgo in Virgil, That Statues of Brafs frequently cracked with exceffive Cold. DAC.

46. Sublatus. A Word taken from a Roman Custom of laying their new-born Infants on the Ground, and educating only those the Father took up

53. Quid prima fecundo cera velit verfu.] Prima cera fignifies the firft Page of the Will, in which the Teftator's Name was written. Secundo verfu was the fecond Line, which contained the Names of the Heirs and Coheirs.

55. Recotus fcriba ex quinqueviro.] The Quinqueviri were a Kind of Tip-Staff or Bailiff in the Colonies and municipal Towns.

Bombastic howl, and, while the Tempeft blows,
Befoam the Winter Alpes with hoary Snows.

Some Perfon then, who chances to be nigh,
Shall pull your Client by the Sleeve, and cry,
"See with what Patience he pursues your Ends!
"Was ever Man fo active for his Friends?”
Thus Gudgeons daily fhall fwim in a-pace,
And stock your Fish-ponds with a fresh Increase.
This Leffon alfo well deferves your Care,
If any Man fhould have a fickly Heir,
And large Estate, left you yourself betray
By making none but Batchelors your Prey,
With weening Eafe the pleafing Bane inftil,
In hopes to ftand the fecond in his Will;
And if the Boy by fome Difafter hurl'd,
Should take his Journey to the nether World,
Your Name in full Reversion may supply
The Void; for feldom fails this lucky Die.
Should any Mifer bid you to peruse
Eis Will, be fure you modeftly refufe,
And push it from you; but obliquely read
The fecond Claufe, and quick run o'er the Deed,
Collecting, whether, to reward your Toil,
You claim the whole, or must divide the Spoil.
A feafon'd Scrivener, bred in Office low,
Full often dupes, and mocks the gaping Crow.
Thus foil'd Nafica fhall become the Sport
Of old Coranus, while he pays his Court..

ULYSSES.

What are you mad, or purpos'd to propose
Obfcure Predictions, to deride my Woes?

TIRE

A Man, who had paffed through thefe little Offices, may well be fuppofed to be fufficiently knowing in what we call the Practice,

and